ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Organizational Culture:
The basic assumptions, shared values and
beliefs that guide the way organizational
members behave toward each other and
approach their work.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Organizational Culture:
• The way we do things around here.
• How people will act under pressure.
• How decisions get made when you can’t be
there.
• What is normal.
• What is rewarded.
• What it takes to SURVIVE.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
3 levels of Organizational Culture
Based on their visibility
• Artifacts and Behaviors
• Values
• Assumptions and Beliefs
3 levels of Organizational Culture
Artifacts
• they include the physical layout of the
workplace and observable behavior of its
employees
• most visible components of organizational
culture.
3 levels of Organizational Culture
Values
• they can be seen as they influence
observable behavior of the individuals
working in the organization
• less visible than behavior
3 levels of Organizational Culture
Assumptions and Beliefs
• they are so well ingrained in the
employees that they come out quite
naturally because that is the way the
organization thinks
• cannot be actually seen
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
• Innovation and Risk Taking
• Attention to Detail
• Outcome Orientation
• People Orientation
• Team Orientation
• Aggressiveness
• Stability
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
Innovation and Risk Taking
• Risk and returns go hand in hand
• You could either be a follower or a
pioneer
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
Attention to Detail
importance a company allots to
precision and detail in the workplace
universal value as the degree of
attention the employees are expected to
give is crucial to the success of any
business
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
Outcome Orientation
• results rather than processes
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
People Orientation
• Management that focuses on people
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
Team Orientation
• help give better results as compared to
individual efforts
• complementary skills and will effectively
work together
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
Aggressiveness
• lays down the level of aggressiveness
with which their employees work
7 primary characteristics of organizational culture
• Stability
• focused on making themselves and their
operations stable
• Stability vs Innovation
Two General Types of Culture
• Defensive Cultures - Inactive/Reactive
– How people see you is more important than what
you do
– Focus on blame
– Maintain the status quo
• Constructive Cultures - Proactive
– Fosters innovation
– Reinforces personal responsibility and accountability
– Value performance
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Defensive Culture
• Systematically undermines long term performance.
• Prevents the organization from identifying and
implementing strategies and tactics that are needed
to compete in an increasingly competitive world.
• Turf wars drive decisions.
• Win or lose based on beating your associates rather
than competitors.
• How you look, not what you accomplish is most
important.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Defensive Culture Syndrome
• Achieve a dominant market position due to
success, vision or luck.
• Success leads to more success.
• Begin believing its because of their brilliance.
• Arrogance sets in.
• Internal focus begins to build a bureaucracy.
• Deterioration of long-term performance.
• It’s always someone else’s fault.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Constructive Culture
• Everyone is expected to provide initiative.
• Low distortion in communication.
• People are encouraged to be decisive, take
moderate risks, take initiative and be
accountable.
• Grow people rather than use them as career
advancement tools.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Constructive Culture Syndrome
• Pursue standard of excellence.
• Externally focused -- beat competitors not
each other.
• Open, candid discussion and decision-making.
• Non-political atmosphere.
• Leadership vs. Management
– facilitating goal accomplishment rather than
monitoring activities.
Jose Tirso B Dayrit
Normative Culture
• system of rules
• Expected attitudes and behaviors
• confrontations are seen as an
opportunity to solve a problem
Constructive Culture
Normative Beliefs Organizational
Characteristics
Achievement Goal and achievement
oriented
Self-actualizing Value self-development and
creativity
Participative, employee
Humanistic-
centered, and supportive
encouraging
High priority on constructive interpersonal
Affiliative
relationships, and focus on work group
satisfaction
Passive Defensive Culture
Normative Beliefs Organizational
Characteristics
Approval Avoid conflict, strive to be
liked by others, and
approval oriented
Conventional Conservative, bureaucratic,
and people follow the rules
Dependent Nonparticipative, centralized decision
making, and employees do what they are
told
Avoidance Negative reward system and Defensive avoid
accountability
Aggressive-Defensive Culture
Normative Beliefs Organizational
Characteristics
Oppositional Confrontation and
negativism rewarded
Power Nonparticipative, take
charge of Defensive
subordinates, and
responsive to superiors
Winning is values and a
Competitive
win-lose approach is used
Perfectionistic, persistent, and hard working
Perfectionistic
The HS cultural model
Self-Actualising
… Members are expected to gain
enjoyment from their work and produce
Achievement high-quality products/services Humanistic-Encouraging
… Members are expected to set … Members are expected to be supportive,
challenging but realistic goals and solve constructive and open to influence in
problems effectively dealing with others
Perfectionistic Affiliative
Members are expected to avoid making … Members are expected to be friendly,
mistakes, work long hours, and keep ‘on open and sensitive to the satisfaction of
top’ of everything the work group
Competitive Approval
… Members are expected to operate in a … Members are expected to agree with,
‘win-lose’ framework and work against gain the approval of, and be liked by
their peers to be noticed others
Power Conventional
… Members are expected to take charge and … Members are expected to conform,
‘control’ others, and make decisions follow the rules and make a good
autocratically impression
Oppositional Dependent
… Members are expected to gain status and … Members are expected to do what they
influence by being critical and constantly are told and clear all decisions with
challenging one another Avoidance supervisors
.. Members are expected to share
responsibilities to others and avoid being
Jose Tirso B Dayrit blamed for mistakes
Pragmatic Culture
• contrast to normative cultures
• No system of rules
• No Expected attitudes and behaviors
• highest importance is given to the needs
of the client
Academy Culture
• employees are highly skilled
• provides an environment for the
development of skills
• Employees tend to stay with the
organization and grow within it
Baseball Team Culture
• employees are "free agents" and are highly
prized
• employees find employment easily
• very much in demand
• type of culture exists in the fast-paced, high-
risk organizations
Club Culture
employees stay with the organization for
a long time and get promoted to a senior
post or level
employees are handpicked, and it is
imperative that they possess the specific
skills required and desired, by the
organization
Fortress Culture
• Employees are not sure if the will be laid off or
not by the organization
• undergoes massive changes
• change is an element of constancy
Tough-Guy or Macho Culture
• big rewards and quick feedback
• associated with quick financial activities
Work Hard/Play Hard Culture
• consist of a firm base along with a strong
client relationship
• emphasize meeting short-term deadlines
• high energy and lots of client contact
• involve only a fraction of the company’s
resources in any one deal
Bet Your Company Culture
• makes big and important decisions over high
stakes events
• takes time to see the consequence of these
decisions
• common among long-term projects
Process Bureaucratic Culture
• does not include the process of feedback
• extremely cautious about the adherence to
laws and prefer to abide by them
• culture provides consistency to the
organization and is good for public services
